Filling-fork protector.



n. s. WO0D'&'J.'NORTHROP.

FILLING FORK PROTECTOR. urmpymox FILED DEO.13, 1909.

Patented Oct. 18, 1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EVERETT S. \VOOD AND JONAS NORTHROP, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIG-NORS TO WILLIAM F. DRAPER, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS; CLARE H. DRAPER AND OLIVER I-I. LANE EXECUTORS OF SAID WILLIAM F. DRAPER, DECEASED.

FILLING-FORK PROTECTOR.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EVERETT S. WOOD and JONAS NORTI-IROP, citizens of the United States, residing at Hopedale, in the county of lVorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Filling- Fork Protectors, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representinglike parts.

The invention herein to be described relates to looms, and more particularly to means associated with the filling fork and which hereinafter, for convenience of identification, will be termed the filling fork protector.

Filling fork troubles are familiar experiences with those supervising the operations of looms. Owing to various causes, as will hereinafter more fully appear, the filling fork is liable to be bent, broken, or injured; the filling is liable to get snarled, looped, or caught upon one of the filling fork tines causing defective action of the fork; the filling thread frequently, and especially on the first detecting action after replenish ment, contacts with the fork so far above the ends of the fork tines as to fail to tilt the fork; and the tension on the filling thread is liable at times to be sufficiently ineffectual, especially on the first pickafter replenishment, to permit the tines of the fork to carry the thread into or between the arms of the grid and thus fail to be tilted even though filling is properly present.

\Vith the above and other filling fork conditions in view, the aims and purposes of the present invention are to provide means for protecting the filling fork and insure its proper relation to and coaction with the filling, all of which will best be made clear from the following description and accompanying drawing of one form of means for carrying the invention into practical effect, it being understood that vari ous changes in the details thereof may be made within the true scope of the actual invention which is defined by the claims.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a plan view, some of the parts being in section, showing a form of filling fork mechanism and its associated parts with the present invention Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 13, 1909.

Patented Oct. 18, 1910.

Serial No. 532,883.

applied thereto, only so much of the loom and the lay being illustrated as is deemed necessary to make clear the general relation of the present invention thereto; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22, Fig. 1; Fig. 8 is a detail in section showing the relation of the filling fork, the protector, and shuttle 011 the detecting action of the fork immediately following the first pick after shuttle replenishment; Fig. tis a similar detail showing the action of the filling fork protector in preventing the filling thread from rising with or upon the filling fork tines; Fig. 5 is a detached detail showing the shuttle in full and dotted line positions to indicate how the inclined portion of the protector may act to move the shuttle into the shuttle box as the lay moves back; and Fig. 6 is a detached detail showing how the protector may yield to prevent breakage of parts in case the shuttle fails to enter the box sufliciently far to escape the edge of the protector as the lay beats up.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the loom frame, of any usual or desired character, has mounted thereon the breast beam 1 which may support the transverse shaft 2 by means of bearings 3. Projecting from the transverse shaft 2 is an arm 4 to the upper portion of which is pivotally connected at 5 the actuator 6, the end 7 of which is adapted to be sustained by the tail 8 of the weft fork when the latter fails to be tilted, or is in the position indicated by Fig. 2, as the said actuator 6 is permitted to drop by forward movement of the weft hammer 9 from under the toe or projecting portion 10 of the actuator. Should the actuator be thus supported by the tail 8 of the weft fork, the finger 11, Fig. 2, of the actuator will be met by the head 12 of the weft hammer and the actuator will be moved forward or toward the front of the loom, thus turning the trans verse shaft 2 through its connection therewith by the arm 4. The transverse shaft 2 filling, a fresh supply of filling may be effected; or, if desired, it may operate through suitable means to stop the loom upon filling failure. Each of these mechanisms and their characteristic operations are well understood by those skilled in the art and need no further treatment here.

The filling fork may be of any desired character, but is here typified as a light metal piece pivotally mounted at 1 1 on fixed supporting arms 15 sustained upon the breast beam 1 by suitable means, such as the bracket 16 and bolts 17. In order that the filling fork may be properly positioned to meet the end 7 of the actuator when the filling fails or is absent from any cause, one of the arms 15 is provided with a stop 18 on which the shoulder 19 of the filling fork normally rests when the fork is not tilted by the filling or otherwise. The tines of the filling fork may be conveniently formed as separate fingers 20 having a bent portion 21, or they may be otherwise con structed, if desired. In the drawings the filling fork is shown as having three tines, but obviously the number of such tines may be varied.

The parts so far described may be substantially as shown in the application of Jonas Northrop, Ser. No. 515,152, filed Air gust 80, 1909, but it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited in this respect, and that such form of filling fork and associated parts, having in view either filling replenishment or loom stoppage on filling failure, are herein shown and described merely as a good practical and convenient construction, but without restricting the actual invention thereto.

As well understood by those skilled in the art, the various elements of a loom require adjustment from time to time, and in connection with such adjustments, particularly when they pertain to the shuttle box, the picking mechanism or adjacent parts, the loom fixer moves the crank shaft to bring the crank to front center, so that the lay is in front position and the filling fork tines are back of the shuttle path. He then moves the shuttle inward from its box to conveniently make the desired adjustment, so that the nose of the shuttle is often in front of the filling fork tines. Before the loom is started the lay is pushed back by hand, and if care is taken to first push the shuttle into the box, no harm is done. Frequently, however, this is forgotten, and as the filling fork is prevented from tipping by the stop and shoulder hereinbefore described, it is evident that the shuttle will bend or straighten out the tines of the fork. The present invention contemplates means for preventing this condition and relation of parts, and the injury arising in connection therewith, and as one convenient form of said means there is mounted on the arm 15, or other support, a plate 22 normally maintained in position as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, so that the loom fixer may not move the shuttle inward from the shuttle box to an extent sufiicient to place the nose of the shuttle in front of the filling fork tines when the lay is in front position. The plate 22 constitutes one form of filling fork protector and is preferably mounted to move on the supporting arm, to the end that should a shuttle fail to enter the shuttle box sufliciently far in the normal operations of the loom to clear the edge of the protector plate, the said plate may yield as it contacts with the shuttle on the forward movement of the lay.

The yielding support of the protector may be variously devised, and as shown in the present illustrated form of the invention is secured by pivotally connecting the protector at 23 with its supporting arm and so distributing the weight of the protector that it normally assumes the protecting position, as in Fig. 2, but is free to yield by contact with the shuttle S, as indicated in Fig. (i. A stop 21 may project from the protector to contact with a coacting part, as the supporting arm, when the protector is in normal protecting position. Obviously the protector may take various forms or shapes, and be pivoted to its supporting arm or otherwise yieldingly mounted thereon, or its yielding characteristic may be attained otherwise than by a yielding relation between the protector and its supporting arm. all of which will be evident. and clearly embraced by the true scope of the present invention, which is generically new in character and function aside from details of construction.

It will be noted that the protector or plate 22 has an inclined portion 2st which, if the nose of the shuttle has engaged the protector in front of said inclined portion, will act, as the lay goes back to push the shuttle into the shuttle box, as indicated by full and dotted lines, Fig.

The lay 25 may be of usual or desired construction and has the grid 26 comprising the upright arms 27, between which the tines of the filling fork may pass in case filling is absent or not in front of the grid when the lay beats up. In the back portion of the lay at one side of the grid 27 is a recess or opening 28 into which the end 29 of the protector or plate 22 may project when the lay moves forward, indicated in 3 and 4-.

In afilling replenishing loom which transfers a fresh filling carrier to the shuttle, the shuttle is usually not completely threaded on the first pick following replenishment, and, as a consequence, the tension on the filling is less than on the following picks when the shuttle has assumed full threaded control of the filling. On the first pick also the filling passes from the top portion of the shuttle, so that as the lay beats up following the first pick after replenishnlei'it, the tines of the filling fork are liable to engage the filling at a point remote from the ends of the tines, or in other words, nearer the pivot of the filling fork than usual, with the result that the light tension on the filling permits the tines to carry the filling between the arms of the grid and the filling fork fails to be tilted.

The present invention, in addition to the characteristics hereinbefore noted, aims to place suflicient tension on the filling as the lay beats up following the first pick after filling replenishment to cure this defective action and cause the filling fork to be properly tilted in case filling is laid in the shed on this pick. As one means of securing this result, the protector or plate 22 has its rear edge 29 formed to engage the filling as it comes from the top of the shuttle S, as indicated in Fig. 3, and carry a loop of the filling f, Fig. 3, into the recess 28, thereby imparting sufficient tension upon the filling to insure tilting action of the filling fork notwithstanding the fact that the shuttle is not completely threaded and the filling is engaged at a point on the tines remote from their ends. It frequently happens that the filling gets looped, snarled, or caught, on one or more of the filling fork tines, due to the fact that as the fork tilts it carries or swings the part of the filling engaged by the tines upward, and due also to the fact that when the fork is thrown back the filling sometimes gets behind it, and the next time the shuttle is thrown across the loom, it passes in front of it, necessarily forming a loop. To secure the desired operation as the fork tilts, the invention contemplates as one of its features means to engage and hold the filling down as the tines swing upward; also means to hold the filling forward when the fork is tilted backward, so that it will in no case become placed on the back side of the fork. These means may be variously contrived, but are herein conveniently formed as features of the protector or plate 22.

The protector or plate 22 has its lower edge 30 formed to pass above the filling in the normal operation of the loom, and prevents the filling being carried or swung upward by the tines 20 which are engaged and tilted by it. A toe or finger 31 projecting from the lower edge of the protector or plate 22 preferably close to the filling fork tines, as indicated by Fig. i, not only assists in preventing such upward movement of the filling but insures that the filling shall be pressed back toward the grid as the lay moves to its front position, the said finger at such time preferably projecting into a recess 32, Fig. 1, extending transversely of the lay.

From the general characteristics of the invention as herein described in connection with one form of means for carrying it into practical effect, it will be noted that the filling fork is so protected that the loom fixer, as he moves the shuttle from the box by hand, cannot place it in position in front of the filling fork when the lay is in front position; that the tines of the fork cannot carry the filling upward as they swing in detecting presence of filling, and-so do not become engaged with a. loop or snarl in the filling; that the filling is held in proper depressed position for detection by the filling fork during normal running of the loom; and that suflicient tension is placed upon the filling on the first pick following replenish ment to insure proper action of the filling fork even though the tines engage the filling at a point remote from the tine ends. These features of the invention are disclosed as embodied in a single filling fork protector, but the invention is generic in these and other respects wherein the structural details of its embodiment may be variously modified, it being understood that the true scope of the invention is clearly defined by the claims.

What is claimed is:

1.. In a loom, the combination of a breast beam, a filling fork, filling fork supporting arms, and a filling fork protector sustained by one of the filling fork supporting arms at the side of the filling fork to prevent any part of the shuttle from being moved between the filling fork and breast beam.

2. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, filling fork supporting arms, and a filling fork protector pivotally connected to one of the filling fork sustaining arms at the side of the filling fork to obstruct movement of the shuttle to a position between the filling fork and breast beam.

3. In a loom, the combination of the lay and breast beam, filling fork supporting arms projecting from the breast beam, a filling fork sustained by said arms, and a filling fork protector pivotally mounted at a point fixed with relation to and at the side of the filling fork to prevent the attendant from moving the'shuttle into position between the filling fork and breast beam, said protector being freely tiltable on its pivotal mounting.

4. In a loom, the combination of a shuttle box, a filling fork, and breast beam, and means mounted adjacent the side of the filling fork to prevent the attendant from moving the shuttle into position between the fili ing fork and breast beam when the lay is in forward position, said means being mounted to tilt in case it is struck by the shuttle on forward movement of the lay.

5. In a. loom, the combination of a breast beam, a filling fork, fixed supporting arms for sustaining the filling fork, and a filling fork protector mounted on one of the fixed supporting arms adjacent the filling fork.

6. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector, and a fixed support on which the filling fork protector is pivotally mounted and held in position at one side of the filling fork to prevent any part of the shuttle being moved between the filling fork and breast beam.

7. In a loom, the combination of a breast beam, a filling fork, a filling fork protector, and a fixed support projecting from the breast beam to a point adjacent the filling fork and on which said protector is movably mounted for sustaining the filling fork protfectior in position at one side of the filling or t.

8. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector disposed at the side of the filling fork, a support for sustaining the filling fork protector, and connections between the protector and support maintained in fixed position relative to the filling fork that the protector may act to prevent any partof the shuttle being moved between the fork and breast beam.

9. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector, and a fixed support on which said filling fork protector is pivotally mounted, said filling fork protector being normally held in fork protecting position and free to tilt on its pivotal support.

10. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and a pivotally mounted plate disposed at one side of the filling fork to tilt in case it is struck by the shuttle as the lay heats up and to intercept the shut-tle when moved toward the filling fork from the adjacent shuttle box to prevent any part of the shuttle being moved between the filling fork and breast beam of the loom.

11. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and a plate disposed at the side of the fork and having its lower edge above the plane of the race to prevent the filling fork from lifting the filling as the filling fork is tilted.

12. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and means, comprising a plate disposed at the side of the filling fork with its lower edge above the plane of the race and having a finger extending below said edge, to prevent the filling from becoming looped or caught upon the fork.

13. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and means, including a plate, the lower edge of which is maintained above the plane of the race and having a projecting portion extending below the plane of the race for acting upon the filling as the lay beats up to move it toward the grid and depress the same and to prevent the filling from becomin g looped or caught upon the fork.

14. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a shuttle box, and a part disposed between the filling fork and shuttle box as the lay beats up, said part having a lower edge disposed above the plane of the race and a finger or projection extending below the lower edge to prevent the filling being caught or looped upon the filling fork.

15. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and a pivotally mounted filling fork protector provided with a downwardly extending finger and having a part disposed with relation to the tines of the filling fork and above the plane of the race to prevent the filling from becoming looped or snarled on the filling fork.

16. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector, a support for sustaining said protector normally in operative position to prevent any part of the shuttle being moved between the filling fork and breast beam, said protector, including a part extending below the lower edge thereof, for preventing the filling from catching on the tines of the filling fork.

17. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector, a support for said filling fork protector, said protector having a portion to overlie the filling as the lay beats up and prevent the filling from rising on the tines of the fork, and a finger projecting from the protector to engage the filling.

18. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a filling fork protector, a stationary support for said filling fork protector, said protector having a portion to overlie the filling as the lay beats up and prevent the filling from rising on the tines of the fork, and a finger extending below the lower edge of the protector.

19. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, a pivotally mounted filling fork protector, a support for said protector to maintain it in position to overlie the filling and hold it depressed as the lay beats up, and a finger or toe extending beyond the lower edge of the protector to engage the filling.

20. In a loom, the combination of a lay, having a recess or opening in the rear wall, a filling fork, and a plate having an edge portion to engage the filling when not fully threaded in the shuttle as the lay beats up to carry the filling into said recess or opening to impart increased tension to the filling when the shuttle is not completely threaded, said plate having another edge portion to hold the filling depressed when the shuttle is completely threaded.

21. In a loom, the combination of a filling fork, and a plate disposed at the side of the filling fork and having edge portions to engage the filling and impart additional tension thereto in case the shuttle is not completely threaded and to depress the filling as In testimony whereof We have signed our the lay beats up When the shuttle is comnames to this specification in the presence pletely threaded. of two subscribing Witnesses.

22. In a loom, the combination of a filling 5 fork. and means having a part acting upon EVERETT S. WOOD. the filling as the lay beats up to impart ad- JONAS NORTHROP.

(litional tension thereto in case the shuttle is not completely threaded and another part Witnesses to both:

to hold the filling depressed in case the shut- RICHARD L. ROYCE, 10 tle is completely threaded. I WENDELL WILLIAMS. 

